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Rhetorical Analysis Of What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July

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An abolitionist, a former slave, and Republican Statesman Frederick Douglass had given a moving speech “What to the Slave is The Fourth Of July” to an audience of white New York Abolitionists in the year 1852. In addition, Douglass’s purpose of the speech is to emphasize the meaning of the Fourth of July to slaves and how the white men have a sense of freedom while the slave has to deal with the reality of what the day means to them. In the speech, Douglass had created a harsh tone to discuss the importance of anti-slavery.

Douglass begins his speech by explaining the idea of what a slave may think of the Fourth of July because he had been a slave and by expressing the way he feels about the holiday that represents freedom for the people in the United States. He calls upon the audience by asking them a question using an interrogative sentence “[...] allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today?” (P.1) Nevertheless, Douglass’s interaction with the audience allows them to reflect upon themselves and ask why he is speaking because that is what he thinks himself. In conclusion, this questioning tone of actions from Douglass conveys the audience to a state of mind of what else he considers the matter of …show more content…

He uses parallelism to move straight to the point by exposing that he himself had gone through the pain of seeing white men celebrate the event in which he himself had only seen sorrows “The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death for me” (P.3). He fuc disengages himself from the audience and presents his k past by saying “ [...]brought stripes and death to me.” This use of parallelism of Douglass has brought a haunting tone that reassures the audience that he does not agree with audience on where they stand with Fourth of

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